The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1905)

A+
One of the 15 films listed in the category
"Religion" on the Vatican film
list.
SDG

The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ is
a remarkable relic from the very dawn of cinema. First released
in 1902 by France’s Pathé film company, it was expanded
and tinkered with for the next three years, reaching its complete
form in 1905. Though popular for decades after its release, it
has been unavailable on video or DVD until recently, when it was
released on DVD with an early American Jesus movie, From
the Manger to the Cross (1912).

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/Spiritual Value

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

At a time when nearly all films were limited to one reel or
less (i.e., no more than ten or fifteen minutes), The Life and
Passion of Jesus Christ was a remarkably in-depth
presentation of the Gospel story, running about thirty minutes at
its original length and nearly three-quarters of an hour in the
expanded version — one of the first long films ever.

The Life and Passion is also remarkable for
Pathé’s trademark hand-coloring stencil process, in which
selected individual objects — an angel’s wings, a soldier’s robe — would be painstakingly hand-dyed, frame by frame, print by
print. (Entire scenes are also sometimes tinted, for example,
blue to suggest night, though this was much more common and less
painstaking.) Other points of technical interest include early
special effects and the beginnings of camera movement in a few
scenes. The two prints from which the DVD transfer were made are
incredibly pristine, and the film looks terrific (better than the 1912 From
the Manger to the Cross).

The film is composed of brief, pageant-like vignettes, each
introduced by a simple title card such as "The Annunciation" or
"The Ascension." At this early stage, the new cinematic art had
yet to learn its unique strengths relative to the "legitimate
theater," and so the staging of each tableau, the theatrical
props and painted backdrops, and the exaggerated acting style,
all typical of the era, are more evocative of a stage
presentation than what came to be expected from a film only a few
years later. (Compared to the 1905 Life and Passion, the
1912 From the Manger to the Cross demonstrates far more
sophisticated technique, including location shooting in the Holy
Land.)

Yet as an icon’s lack of naturalism is integral to its
transcendent meaning as sacred art, so the Life and
Passion’s very staginess and pageant-like nature have a
timeless quality that encourages reflection on the gospel events
themselves. Individual tableaux are visually composed to resemble
sacred art (Gustave Doré is one notable influence).

There are no dialogue intertitles; as with traditional sacred
art, viewers are expected to know the stories, and no effort is
made to clarify for the uninitiated. (By contrast, the 1912
American film is liberally explicated with quotations from the
King James Bible.) However, in many cultures it was not uncommon
for silent film to be accompanied by live commentary, not unlike
a contemporary DVD commentary track, and the Life and
Passion was used by missionaries to introduce the gospel
events to new cultures.

Catholic tradition is reflected in the narrative in a number
of scenes, as when Veronica wipes the face of Christ and finds
the Holy Face on the cloth, an incident not mentioned in the
gospels. A common patristic saying that Christ came forth from
Mary’s womb "like light through glass" is evoked in the film’s
depiction of the Nativity, in which the Christ child simply
appears in the manger while Mary and Joseph kneel nearby. And the
tradition that St. Michael aided the Holy Family on the flight to
Egypt is strikingly imagined in a scene in which the archangel
blinds Herod’s soldiers to the presence of the Holy Family,
literally turning the latter invisible before chasing the
soldiers away.

Other scenes depict popular folk pictures or conflations of
gospel stories, as when the Magi show up along with the shepherds
at the Nativity, or when the miraculous catch of fishes is
combined with the walking on water. Still others use the
conventions of stage theater to depict supernatural events. For
example, the Resurrection depicts Jesus rising up out of Sheol
rather than getting up from where he was laid in the sepulchre.
And in the climactic moment of the Ascension sequence (and of the
film as a whole) we see Jesus, not simply ascending into the sky,
but seated at the right hand of the Father with the Holy Spirit,
surrounded by saints and angels.

With the possible exception of The Miracle Maker, I know of no
Jesus film that makes for more accessible and inspirational
viewing for children, who are much more open to the power of
silent film than most adults (see "Watching Silents with
Children"). My older three children (at this writing ages eight, five, and
two) have watched the Life and Passion with me more than
once, providing our own commentary track just like the
missionaries and showmen of decades past. It’s a genuinely
religious experience for them, and for me. The film’s virtues
still speak to them, while the stagy production values and
exaggerated stage acting pose no obstacle to them. It’s a pity
more adults aren’t able to approach films like this on their own
terms.